Archive

It’s good to get a team together, face-to-face, that usually only meets virtually via IRC on occasion. The Fedora Docs Project team recently had such an opportunity when they met in the Red Hat offices in Raleigh and Brno. Linked by a video teleconference, the two groups converged to discuss new work-flows for Publican 4, hacking on some guides, discussing management issues, and working to get the new Docs website built and configured. Here are some of the highlights of the event:

Work-flow update for Publican 4

The release of Fedora 20 also saw the release of Publican 4. Publican 4 isn’t quite backwards compatible with the Publican 2 we were using so an update to our work-flow was necessary. We’ve also made it to a point in our work where using the old web.git repo for publishing just isn’t working any longer. The new way of publishing involves using Koji to build our documents in RPMs and place them safely into a repository where they can be grabbed by our backend server and be published to the world. This change not only represents new commands but also a different mindset to publishing. The new procedures were documented and tested so we’ll be able to start utilizing these as soon as our backend server gets fixed.

Guides hacked upon

You know those guides that seem to languish? Yeah, I’ve got a few of those. I did spend some time working on a few guides that will hopefully go live for Fedora 20 or 21.

Accessibility Guide

The Accessibility Guide has really taken a backseat in recent releases. I’m not sure much has changed for many users but it’s good to keep the document current for any new users that may require a little assistance in making their computer work for them. I was able to take a lot of stuff out of the guide, mostly GNOME packages that are no longer in Fedora and add a couple of packages I found for KDE. I’m hoping I can do a better review of what’s available in Fedora before Fedora 21 comes around.

Amateur Radio Guide

I finally got around to adding CQRLOG to the guide. I really love CQRLOG as a logging program so I’m happy to share some of that information with other amateur radio operators that come to Fedora looking for a FOSS solution for their radio activities. John made a few additions as well so I suspect the next release will have some added goodness that people should find helpful.

Documentation Guide

This is where I spent most of my time working. The style guide was moved from the wiki into the guide and other useful information was added as well.

Jargon Guide

This guide has never really seen the light of day. This is due to the fact that translations of this guide would be nearly useless as they wouldn’t be in any particular order. Publican 4 fixes this long-standing bug and so I, once again, have hope to publish this book.

Security Guide

Yeah, there’s always some hacking on the security guide when I’m around. This time there was some testing of the new Yubikey Neo and getting them to do tricks inside Fedora.

New backend server

Jared worked very diligently to create a new backend server. Unfortunately the documentation was lacking and so we weren’t able to complete the build. Work continues on this effort.

Videos of the FAD

Because most of the event took place over our video chat you can watch the videos from the meeting: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

At the SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) a few Docs folks grabbed a room and started discussing some processes for QA with the Docs Project.

A few months ago the idea was had to have a QA team that would review the text and DocBook code to make sure what we are saying is correct and has consistent XML tags. Several members stepped forward work this project but the process never really got off the ground and the organization never came together.

At the SELF FAD we tried to make the process easy and yet functional. Basically we created two processes: new text and bug fixes.

The new text process involves creating the new guide/article, committing it to a repo, opening up a BZ ticket, having someone from Docs QA go through the guide making sure that the processes and procedures are correct and that the DocBook XML tags are correct and consistent, then branching the repo and publishing. Similarly, bug fixes have their patches reviewed prior to be committed to the branch for publishing.

Not only does this give us the opportunity to “clean up” our documents before they hit the streets, this will also give us an opportunity to engage our new contributors that may not be experienced with writing in DocBook XML.

This is by no means the new “policy” but rather a proposal. Discussion will be over on the Docs List. I’m hoping this proposal is a win-win situation for Docs!

Day three started off with a bang. I met Paul at the “Beginner’s class for Drupal” during the Drupal Camp. During that class we were given lots of good information on Drupal including how to install and set up Drupal in less than five minutes.

Several Fedorians then gathered at the local Krispy Kreme to discuss the upcoming Fedora Activity Day (FAD) that was to begin at 1PM. Paul and Max started putting together their plan to debunk myths within Fedora. Ian was tasked with explaining how to becoming a contributor and how to utilize the wiki. With the best laid plans we returned to the conference center with a plan to dazzle all that attended the FAD.

The FAD began promptly at 1PM with thirty to forty participants. Paul answered lots of questions including those regarding RPM dependency hell, that it’s difficult to get packages into Fedora, and how you don’t have to be a programmer to be a contributor.

Max took over for Paul and we were soon into becoming a contributor. Ian walked everyone through the process of getting a FAS account and signing the CLA. One gentleman in the crowd signed up immediately!

After going over the process we dove into filing bugs using Bugzilla. Using an actual problem found we created the bug, gathering as much information as possible, and submitted it upstream to the Kernel Opps site.

After working through the bug we had more of a round-table discussion on Fedora. Unfortunately it was past 4PM at this point and we needed to get on the road. I really appreciate everyone who came out to the FAD and participated! See you next year!

Ran around all yesterday trying to get out of the office so Joat and I could head down to SouthEast LinuxFest. Got on the road to Spartinburg around 4P and drove… and drove… and drove. Man it’s a long way down here.

The plus is that we were able to talk geek all the way down which is a nice change of pace. Thumbed through some old editions of Linux Journal and the time just flew by.

Arrived at the Marriott hotel around 11P and was in bed before 1A.

Should be fun meeting more Fedorians at Friday’s hackfest. Hopefully we’ll all get some work done in addition to having fun!